This Thursday the Senate’s Election Law and Municipal Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on Senate Bill 80. This important bill establishes an independent advisory committee on redistricting. This legislation will end the detrimental politicization of redistricting without the state Legislature loosing ultimate control.
The nonpartisan League of Women Voters in New Hampshire supports an independent advisory commission. The people of New Hampshire also want to end gerrymandering because we do not want our votes manipulated be either party. We want independent redistricting based upon the 2020 census.
In my town of Dunbarton, roughly one-third of the registered voters are Democrats, one third independents, and one-third Republicans. Hardly a hot bed of progressive thinking. Yet at the 2020 Dunbarton Town Meeting, there was a unanimous vote for a warrant article in support of an independent advisory commission on redistricting.
Sen. Gray, we ask that your committee votes to support SB 80, push for its passage within the Senate, and convince Gov. Chris Sununu, who has twice vetoed similar bills, to sign it. What happens in your committee this week, Sen. Gray, will go a long way toward understanding if this new Republican Legislature will support the will of the people of New Hampshire or, sadly, work solely for the benefit of the Republican Party.
ROBERT JARNIS
Dunbarton